Do Not Call List

Has your evening or weekend been disrupted by a call from a telemarketer? If
so, you’re not alone. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been
receiving complaints in increasing numbers from consumers throughout the nation
about unwanted and uninvited calls to their homes from telemarketers.

Pursuant to its authority under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA),
the FCC established, together with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a
national Do-Not-Call Registry. The registry is nationwide in scope, applies to
all telemarketers (with the exception of certain non-profit organizations), and
covers both interstate and intrastate telemarketing calls. Commercial
telemarketers are not allowed to call you if your number is on the registry,
subject to certain exceptions. As a result, consumers can, if they choose,
reduce the number of unwanted phone calls to their homes.

Do-Not-Call Registry

You can register your phone numbers for free, and they will remain on the
list until you remove them or discontinue service – there is no need to
re-register numbers.

The Do-Not-Call registry does not prevent all unwanted calls. It does not
cover the following:

calls from organizations with which you have established a business
relationship;

calls for which you have given prior written permission;

calls which are not commercial or do not include unsolicited
advertisements;

calls by or on behalf of tax-exempt non-profit organizations.

How to Register

For Consumers:

Subscribers may register their residential telephone number, including
wireless numbers, on the national Do-Not-Call registry by telephone or by
Internet at no cost.

Consumers can register on-line for the national do-not-call registry by going
to www.donotcall.gov. To register by
telephone, consumers may call 1-888-382-1222: for TTY call 1-866-290-4236. You
must call from the phone number you wish to register.

For Industry:

Telemarketers and sellers are required to search the registry at least once
every 31 days and drop from their call lists the phone numbers of consumers who
have registered. For more information, see:
Industry.

Related Rules

In addition to the establishment of a national Do-Not-Call Registry, there
are other amendments to the Commission's rules implementing the TCPA that may
reduce the number of telemarketing calls to your home:

If you subscribe to CALLER ID, you should know when a telemarketer is
calling you: telemarketers are required to transmit Caller ID information and
may not block their numbers.

Telemarketers must ensure that predictive dialers abandon no more than
three percent of all calls placed and answered by a person. A call will be
considered "abandoned" if it is not transferred to a live sales agent within
two seconds of the recipient's greeting. As a result, you are less likely to
run to answer the phone only to find silence or the "click" of the calling
party disconnecting the line.

In addition to these changes the rules provide:

Telephone solicitation calls to your home before 8 am or after 9 pm are
prohibited.

Anyone making a telephone solicitation call to your home must provide
his/her name, the name of the entity on whose behalf the call is being made,
and a telephone number or address at which you may contact that entity.

Company-specific do-not-call lists are available to consumers who wish to
avoid telemarketing calls only from specific companies. For more information
see our Unwanted
Telephone Marketing Calls Guide.

How to Complain

Filing a Do-Not-Call Complaint

In addition to complaints alleging violations of the national do-not-call
list, you may also file a complaint against a telemarketer who is calling for a
commercial purpose (e.g., not charitable organizations) IF:

The telemarketer calls before 8 AM or after 9 PM; OR

The telemarketer leaves a message, but fails to leave a phone number that
you can call to sign up for their company specific do-not-call list; OR

You receive a telemarketing call from a company that you have previously
requested not call you; OR

The telemarketing firm fails to identify itself; OR

You receive a pre-recorded commercial message from someone with whom you
do not have an established business relationship and to whom you have not
given permission to call you.

How to File a Complaint

You can file a complaint by telephone to 1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322)
voice or 1-888-TELL-FCC (1-888-835-5322) TTY, by fax to 1-866-418-0232, via our
electronic complaint form, or mail.
For the FCC to process your complaint you must either fill in the electronic
form completely or otherwise indicate:

your name and address;

the home phone number where you received the solicitation;

identification of the individual or company whose products or services were
being advertised or sold, and any phone numbers included in the call;

a description of the call;

any phone number provided to allow you to “opt-out” of future calls;

whether you or anyone else in your household gave the caller express prior
permission to call;

whether you have an EBR with the caller (specifically, whether you or anyone
else in your household made any purchases of property, goods, or services from
the company that called, or made any inquiry or filed an application with the
company prior to receiving the call).

For this or any other consumer publication in an alternative format
(electronic ASCII text, Braille, large print, or audio) please write or call us
at the address or phone number above, or send an email to
FCC504@fcc.gov.

12/23/04
Effective January 1, 2005, telemarketers will have to scrub their contact lists
against the national do-not-call registry every 31 days, rather than every three
months, as had been the case since the do-not-call list was established in 2003.
News Release: Word
|
Acrobat

12/15/04
Annual Report to Congress on the National Do-Not-Call Registry. Word
|
PDF

10/03/03
The FCC temporarily stays the limitations imposed in section 64.1200 (f)(3) on
the duration of an "established business relationship" as applied to the sending
of unsolicited facsimile advertisements.
Word |
PDF

9/30/03
Statement of Chairman Powell, Before the Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation, United States Senate on Rules and Regulations Implementing the
Do-Not-Call Registry Pursuant to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991
Word |
PDF

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